HCA Holdings Inc., the nation's largest hospital company, is looking to consolidate a large portion of its administrative operations into Nashville, Tenn., which would provide an economic windfall to the area and could set the standard for hospital cost-cutting efforts nationwide.

The Nashville Business Journal reports that the move would likely bring hundreds of new jobs to Nashville, although the impact on HCA's overall employment is unknown.

Nashville-based HCA owns Louisville-based National Patient Account Services, which has about 360 employees and last year had an operating budget of $44 million.

In June, its CFO, Garett Jackson, won the Business First CFO of the Year honor in the large private company category.

The Nashville Business Journal report said that between HCA's consolidation plans and its search for space for the Sarah Cannon Research Institute, the company is on the prowl for about 400,000 square feet of new space in the Nashville area, according to several Nashville sources. That type of new construction would bring millions of dollars in economic benefit to the area.

Currently, HCA (NYSE: HCA) has 11 shared service locations scattered nationwide that are responsible for back-office corporate functions such as patient accounts, human resources and recruitment, according to the company's website. While it's unclear whether those services or employees would move to Nashville, sources said HCA is looking for 200,000 to 250,000 square feet for the Nashville expansion.

HCA declined comment.

HCA operates 163 hospitals nationwide and had annual revenue of nearly $30 billion in 2011. Louisville-based NPAS provides accounts-receivable management for hospitals and outpatient centers for HCA and for hospitals not owned by HCA. It has more than 200 hospitals as customers.

Annie Johnson covers health care and legal affairs. You can follow her on Twitter at @AnnieNBJ.

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